Washington, D.C. — Today, Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released the following statement after meeting with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew:
“Mr. Chew and I had a frank conversation, and I appreciate his time. But I remain fundamentally concerned that TikTok, as a Chinese-owned company, is subject to dictates from the Chinese Communist Party and poses an unacceptable risk to U.S. national security. Mr. Chew and I also discussed the poisonous influence of TikTok’s algorithms on teen mental health, and I urged him to consider his platform’s harm to a generation of Americans.”
Earlier this month, Bennet called on Apple CEO Tim Cook and Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai to remove TikTok from their app stores immediately given its unacceptable risk to U.S. national security. Last year, Bennet introduced first-of-its-kind legislation to create a Federal Digital Platform Commission, an expert federal body empowered to provide comprehensive, sector-specific oversight of digital platforms to protect consumers, promote competition, and defend the public interest.